GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemala’s foreign ministry on Monday condemned the death of a Guatemalan migrant in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state, where he was reportedly shot dead by Mexican soldiers.
Mexican newspaper El Universal and TV station Milenio reported that the soldiers shot the migrant at a checkpoint they erected on a crossing popular with migrants entering Mexico illegally on way to the United States.
The soldiers were then taken into Guatemalan territory by the residents of the border crossing community known as Bacatum, Mexican media reported.
“The @MinexGt condemns the tragic incident in which the Guatemalan citizen Elvin Mazariegos Pérez died in Mazapa de Madero, Chiapas State, Mexico,” Guatemala’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about reports of Mexican soldiers being detained on the Guatemalan side of the border.
Mexico’s foreign ministry also did not respond to a request for comment.
The attorney general’s office in Chiapas said in a statement that it has opened an investigation into the killing.
(This story corrects to show it was attorney general’s office in Chiapas, not Guatemala, that opened investigation)
(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; editing by Richard Pullin)
